Return to Furya
by Raha
Summary: Riddick's been searching for Furya, and Aereon holds all the answers. But she's not telling until he does something for her first-destroy the Necromonger horde, once and for all. Not a problem. They did try to kill him. Now it's time for some payback. Set after the events of Riddick 2013.
1. Chapter 1

**LOADING...RETURN TO FURYA  
**

**DATA ENTRY: THE BEGINNING  
**

**LOG 001-11/04/2514  
**

* * *

"Fuck."

The curse was soft, but even clear across the room Riddick would swear she'd heard it. Her storm-cloud eyes came up and locked onto his, a smile dancing in the frown lines around her mouth. She'd disappeared shortly after he'd taken the Necromonger throne, nearly seven years ago now, but she was still the same wrinkled old lady he remembered.

"Hello, Richard," Aereon greeted softly, having the good sense not to use his last name, and slid into the seat next to him. She nodded politely at the bartender, who was eyeing her with a good amount of suspicion and disbelief. His establishment was one of the seediest in the entire start system. Old ladies were definitely _not_ his regular customers. "I'll have what he's having."

"You sure, grandma?" the bartender asked, raising a brow. "It ain't yer regular ol' rot-gut. Kicks like a mule, it does."

"I'm sure," Aereon smiled.

"Your stomach lining, lady," the bartender muttered, cleaning out a dirty mug and slopping a good amount of smoky brown liquid all over the counter—though some of it actually managed to make it into the glass. Aereon nodded her thanks, glanced mischievously at Riddick for a moment, and slammed the entire thing. Riddick let out a soft whistle as she put the glass down and daintily dabbed at her mouth.

"That is truly the worst thing I've ever tasted," Aereon informed him.

"Hey, at least he cleaned the glass out first," Riddick snorted. "He ain't usually that considerate."

"It's because I look like his mother," Aereon replied tartly. "Thank you, that was lovely," she added to the bartender, who snorted so hard he nearly choked on his own spit. Riddick silently regarded the woman for a moment, his expression impassive. She had shed her white robes for a black shirt and dark grey cargo pants, tucked into dirty combat boots. Her snowy hair was woven into two braids, and her face was shadowed by a long, hooded cloak. She was even carrying a gun, strapped to her hip, and a small satchel she held securely in her lap and didn't let go of.

"What the hell are you doin' out here?" Riddick asked, tapping the table for another shot.

"I was looking for you," Aereon replied.

"Yeah, I figured," Riddick grunted. He didn't bother asking how she'd managed to find him, out here in the middle of nowhere on this shithole of an asteroid. She was a Seer, after all. "At least you actually came looking for me and didn't just put a bounty out for my head this time," he drawled. "So what do you want now?"

"You know perfectly well that I was a prisoner of the Necromongers at the time," Aereon retorted crisply. "Otherwise, I'd have tracked you down myself. But circumstances have changed, and I've got a bit more freedom."

"Thanks to me," Riddick reminded her.

"Yes, and that's partially why I'm here," Aereon said. "To repay that debt. You've been searching for Furya, yes?"

It took every scrap of willpower Riddick possessed to remain calm and relaxed. Aereon was a wily, calculating creature—she wouldn't just give him this for nothing, despite what she claimed. He'd wait for the other shoe to drop.

"What of it?" he asked, feigning disinterest.

"Have you found it yet?" Aereon asked, a sly edge to her voice. "You've been looking for, what? Two years now?"

Riddick gave her a shrewd, side-long look, though she couldn't see it behind the goggles.

"I take it _you've_ found it," he said evenly. "Question is, what do you want for the information?"

"Well, the problem isn't finding it," Aereon explained, downing another glass of rotgut and shaking her head. "I can tell you where it is right now. When the Necromongers attacked, the entire planet was nearly blown out of orbit. It's a dead world now. But it can be restored. That's going to be the tricky bit."

Riddick's hands closed around his mug and gripped hard. He was thrumming with energy, though he remained perfectly still.

"Yeah?" he asked.

"Oh, yes," Aereon replied. "Because seeing as it was the Necromongers who destroyed your world, they also know of its location. And they will do everything they can to stop you reclaiming it."

"That ain't a problem," Riddick intoned, a dangerous smirk lighting his eyes. "I'm guessin' old Zhylaw hid the records of it while he was Lord Marshall? 'Cause I never found a damn thing."

"You wouldn't have," Aereon replied. "He had them sealed shortly after decimating the planet, yes. For the record, you would never have been made privy to that information, even if you'd Converted. Being a Furyan, you couldn't be trusted not to turn on them."

"So, that's your price, huh?" Riddick asked. "Take out the Necromongers, and you'll take me to Furya?"

"That's what you wanted anyway, isn't it?" Aereon said. "Considering how Commander Vaako betrayed and abandoned you on…what did you call it? Not-Furya. Well, now I'd like to give you the opportunity to pay him back. What do you say?"

Riddick chuckled. "You're so sure I'm gonna bite, aren't you?"

"Aren't _you_?" Aereon smiled. "Come now. I know you haven't had any luck finding home on your own, and you won't without my help."

"That why you waited until now to tell me all this?" Riddick asked, a hard edge cutting into his tone. "Wanted to make sure I was nice and desperate first?"

"We both know you wouldn't have taken my offer before," Aereon replied breezily. "You were too busy sleeping your way through every Necro-girl you could find, weren't you? No need to rock the boat trying to get back to some empty, forgotten rock."

Riddick clenched his teeth, and a tight metal band of fury squeezed at his chest, but he was grudgingly impressed, despite himself. Not many people had the balls to smart-off like that. Not to him. Not when it hit so close to home.

"Really?" he asked in a low voice. "Well, way I see it, the only reason it got that way was 'cause of _you_."

"Oh?"

"Way I see it, you owe me twice," Riddick drawled, deliberately leaning into her space. "Once, for that prophecy you told Zhylaw. And again, when I let you go instead of gutting you like I should have done ages ago."

"First of all, that prophecy was told under duress," Aereon informed him crisply, not in the least bit intimidated. "When someone is tearing your soul in half, you'd say anything they wanted, believe me. And secondly, that prophecy saved your life."

"Yeah? And how do you figure that?"

"You didn't really think the Necromongers would have left your planet alone, did you?" she asked, looking at him like he'd just dribbled on his shirt. "They had plans for your people, believe me. The diplomatic discussions were already underway. The conquering of your kind would have been more peaceful, yes, but no less tragic than what happened. The Furyans they Converted would have ravaged the Universe. Mostly likely, you, yourself, would now be a Necromonger, if things had gone as they should have."

"…Should have?" Riddick echoed, his voice strained. "Wait. You mean…"

"Yes," Aereon said, looking him right in the eye. "The prophecy I gave Zhylaw was false. If I had kept my silence, of course he never would have openly attacked your world. Your people were too dangerous for that, and Zhylaw did not wish to suffer losses when there were easier ways of dealing with the situation. Only the consequences of their Conversion were too great for the rest of us."

"So you threw Furya under the bus."

"In a manner of speaking, yes. I knew what Zhylaw's actions would be. I knew he would make my false prophecy true," Aereon said. "And for what it's worth…I'm sorry."

Riddick was quiet. He didn't wonder what his life would have been; he was a creature of the here and now. Worrying about an existence that had never happened was pointless. But his life had begun with an umbilical cord wrapped around his neck. Zhylaw might have ordered it, but Aereon had set him on that path. _She_ had pulled the trigger.

The animal inside him was snarling. It wanted him to take her by her bony little shoulders and shake her until her brains came out her shriveled ears.

He took a breath and held it. That probably wouldn't do any good, anyway. She'd just ghost right out of his hands. Fucking Elementals.

"Sorry ain't worth shit," Riddick grunted, and pushed away from the bar. "Keep your information. I'll find Furya on my own."

Aereon sighed, but she didn't follow.

.oOo.

Riddick stalked away from her, away from her fucking prophecies and the sorrow in her eyes and the infuriating way she looked at him—like she understood exactly what he felt. His heart was thumping hard against his ribcage, and his fists were clenched tightly at his sides.

He was so angry he almost didn't notice the Mercs sneaking up from behind.

Almost.

He twisted to the side as one tried to shiv him in the back. His fist came around and drove straight into the man's throat. The Merc made a strangled, wheezing sound and dropped like a stone. Two blades appeared in Riddick's hands, and he went to work on the other three. They were down in seconds, dead or soon to be. He wiped the blood off on his pants, and continued on his way like nothing had happened.

"Riddick!"

The cry was sharp, a warning. Riddick turned, and saw Aereon dashing up to him from behind. Her form was slightly translucent, which explained why he hadn't heard her approach. But then she became very solid a second later when she crashed into his chest and shoved him hard. He staggered back—just as a figure in black dropped soundlessly from the roof and drove a sword into Aereon's chest. She bit off an agonized cry, and collapsed to the ground.

Riddick saw red.

Despite everything she'd done, despite how furious he was with her, she was one of the last remaining friends he actually had, and one of the only people he (grudgingly) respected.

He killed the assassin before he even knew what was happening. A moment he'd been standing in a dirty alleyway, staring down at the woman bleeding out on the pavement, and the next—both knives were buried in her killer's eyes. The man let out a short, horrified scream, and cut off sharply when Riddick twisted his wrist and dropped him. He was dead before he hit the ground. Riddick panted for a moment, getting himself under control, before he turned to Aereon.

She looked up at him, and reached out a hand. Slowly, he bent and took it.

"You saw this coming, didn't you?" he asked quietly.

"It's…how I found you…"Aereon gasped. "I followed…the Mercs…"

"You couldn't have said something?" he snorted.

"No…This was…the best outcome…"

"What? You dying in an alley?" Riddick snapped. "That was the best fucking outcome you could come up with? Why didn't you phase out?"

"Wasn't time," Aereon smiled. "Had to…push you out of…the way."

"Goddammit, Aereon!" Riddick snarled. "Will you—will you people stop throwing yourselves into danger for me? I'm not—_I'm not_—"

"Worth it…?" Aereon asked, gasping through every word. "Of course…you are. You're the man…who fights monsters. We need…more people…like you."

"Didn't you say you were gonna help me find Furya?" Riddick retorted. "Can't exactly be much of a help when you're dead."

"Don't worry…I'm not…dying."

"Sorry, old lady, but I think the sword in your chest begs to differ."

"Must you be so…pessimistic?" Aereon chuckled, a line of blood trailing from the corner of her mouth. She was panting raggedly now, her eyes dark with pain.

"Comes with the life of a convicted murderer."

"Well, lighten up, son," Aereon breathed. "And step back…"

Riddick blinked, confusion marring his brow, before he noticed the light shimmering beneath Aereon's skin. Slowly he drew away, and as Aereon's hand fell away from his, she let out a heavy sigh and went still. Her eyes turned blank and filmy, and he'd seen death a hundred times, but seeing it in a (sort of) friend sat in his heart like it never did with anyone else. And it seemed to be happening more and more lately. Caroline, Imam, Kyra…

But the light was growing in Aereon. It grew and grew, brighter and brighter, until the entire alley was lit up like it was high noon. Golden, glittering tendrils of light snaked across the ground, trailing around his ankles and twining lazily up his arms. It was warm, and it made his heart pound. Suddenly, he felt like he could run a marathon.

The sword clattered against the pavement as the golden ball of energy rose up off the ground, spinning and whirling and shining up and up and up until he had to close his eyes it was so blinding—then there was a short, punchy pop like a hundred light bulbs all exploding at once—and then silence.

The alley was plunged into darkness again, and Riddick slowly lifted his goggles, blinking against the spots dancing across his vision. It took him a moment to spot Aereon standing a foot in front of him, though it was hard to make out her features.

"Ohhh, that's much better," Aereon said, looking like she was shaking out her entire body…and sounding entirely different. "My, I haven't felt this good in years. I should have done this _years_ ago. Honestly, this is marvelous."

"The hell are you talking about?" Riddick grunted, still blinking a bit owlishly at her. Something was off about her face, but he couldn't quite place what it was.

"Later, sweetie, we need to get out of here," Aereon said airily, taking him by the arm and gently leading him away from the alley. _Sweetie?_

"What just happened?" he asked.

"Change, my dear," Aereon smiled. "And not a moment too soon."

She pulled him out into the street, and Riddick was finally able to clear the spots from his eyes as the light of the moon washed over them. He looked down. The hand on his arm was no longer wrinkled, but smooth and soft. Aereon's hair was still the color of fresh snow, but it seemed to glow in the silver light, full and healthy instead of brittle with age. Where before Aereon's clothes had hung limply off her thin frame, now they hugged every delicious curve and plane of her body. Then she turned towards him, and he forgot to breathe.

She was gorgeous.

Gone were the aged lines around her mouth and eyes. Instead, her face was full of color and vitality, her rosy skin clear as glass. Only her eyes remained the same, old and wise, but brighter than he'd ever seen them. She gave him a knowing smirk, and _winked_.

"How do you like me now, Riddick?" she asked.

"I think…I could get used to this," Riddick replied, with a slow and wolfish grin.

**To be continued...**

* * *

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**


	2. Chapter 2

**LOADING...RETURN TO FURYA  
**

**DATA ENTRY: THE ORACLE  
**

**LOG 002-11/04/2514**

* * *

"It's called regeneration," Aereon explained, as Riddick hot-wired the space-cruiser she'd pointed out and pulled away from the dock. He casually rammed into another ship on the way out, breaking its moorings and sending it spinning out into space. Aereon shot him a sideways glance, as if to ask if that was really necessary. He smirked at her, and kicked the cruiser into high-gear.

"It's a trick the Elementals borrowed, a long time ago, from a race that's been dead for millennia now," Aereon continued. "This was back when we were known as the Sisterhood of Karn. Before the Great Time War destroyed our home planet."

"_Time_ War?"

"There were these people, called Time Lords," Aereon replied. "They watched over the web of time, and made sure nothing could change its continuity. But they created many enemies, and their ways eventually pushed my ancestors to leave their home planet, Gallifrey, and settle on Karn. But that was a very long time ago. Even the last survivor of the Time Lords is dead."

"Couldn't he…regenerate?"

"Used up all his lives, I'm afraid," Aereon shrugged. "Nothing lasts forever. But he had thirteen. I only have four. Well, three now, I suppose. And, if everything went as it should, one minor improvement..."

"Minor?" Riddick said, slowly eyeing her form up and down with open appreciation. She scoffed at him, and shook her head.

"Appearances are irrelevant," she said, earning a heavy snort. She afforded him a disdainful look.

"If that's not what you meant, then...?"

But Aereon shook her head.

"Later. It's not safe to show you in here," she replied, waving a hand dismissively. He raised a brow at that, but didn't comment. "Now. If you won't mind setting the coordinates for Coromander Five, we have some recruiting to do."

"...What?" Riddick said flatly.

"Well, the Necromongers aren't going to defeat themselves, are they?"

"I never said—"

"I _did_ just save your life," Aereon interjected pointedly.

"You just kept me from gettin' stuck," Riddick retorted. "I've survived much worse than some wannabe assassin out for my head."

"So the life I gave up for you means nothing, does it?" Aereon asked him with too much sweetness in her tone.

"I didn't ask you to do it," Riddick growled.

"Regardless, I think you still owe me a debt, don't you?"

"Is _that_ what you meant by the best outcome?" Riddick asked. "Thought you could guilt me into doing what you want? 'Cause the way I see it, you were hobblin' along on your last leg, anyway, grandma. You just did yourself a favor."

"Well, how else was I supposed to convince you?" Aereon smirked. "It's not like I could appeal to the goodness of your heart."

At that, Riddick threw back his head and laughed. He didn't think he'd ever met a girl with such audacity in his life. As infuriating as she could be, it was actually somewhat refreshing.

"Ain't got one, sweetheart."

"Oh, sweetheart now, am I?" Aereon said tartly. "It's amazing what a few wrinkles can do. I am much too old for you, Richard B. Riddick, and don't you forget it, young man."

In a flash, Riddick reached over and snagged Aereon around the middle, pulling her right into his lap. She actually yelped in surprise, her legs straddling him, and he gripped her hips, pulling her firmly down onto the erection straining at his pants.

"Didn't see that coming, did you, Seer?" he growled low, leaning forward to run his nose along the length of her throat. "Tell me, old lady…When was the last time someone fucked you?"

He saw Aereon's cheeks blush red, heard a sharp intake of breath—and then she reached up and twisted his ear as hard as she could. He snarled, but before he could do anything else she was gone, ghosting right out of his arms and clear across to the other side of the cockpit.

"Riddick, I am not one of your little whores, and if you touch me like that again I'll rip your heart right out of your chest," she hissed, and for a moment her pupils expanded until her eyes turned completely black. A shadow crossed her face, and instead of a young, snow-haired girl a spitting demon stood in the doorway. Then she whirled on her heel, her cloak swirling behind her, and stalked out of the cockpit.

Riddick laughed himself hoarse.

.oOo.

He found Aereon in the galley, scribbling calculations into a black diary and muttering to herself under her breath. He looked over her shoulder, but whatever she was doing went way over his head. There were equations written in ancient symbols a paragraph long, line graphs, coordinates, names of people he'd never heard of, and dates that hadn't happened yet.

He paused for a moment, considering the half-moon spectacles she wore. Who the fuck wore spectacles anymore, these days? Hadn't she ever heard of Lasiks? Yet somehow, they made her all the more enticing. Her white hair fell softly across her brow, bangs framing her heart-shaped face, softening the edges. Her hands were held out loosely in front of her, fingers deftly manipulating tendrils of white smoke into numbers, graphs, lines, and pictures—flashing by almost too fast to see. She was small in stature, her head barely reaching his collar-bone, but for this moment she seemed so much bigger than she was—otherworldly and ancient and wise.

Riddick wondered what she would be like, pressed against him, all soft curves and smooth skin—

He shook his head. Not an hour ago she'd been a withered old woman.

_But that was an hour ago_, a wicked voice whispered. He was a creature of the here and now.

"You haven't yet agreed to my offer," she said lowly, her gaze flicking back and forth, absorbed in her work. "Are you going to help me defeat the Necromongers, or not?"

"Not," Riddick replied flatly, dropping into the chair opposite her.

"Hm. Somehow, I doubt they're going to give you much of a choice, in the end," Aereon said, glancing briefly up at him over the rims of her glasses. "They _will_ prevent you from retaking the planet. That is why we need to take care of them first, now, before they regain any more power. Many went to seed under your rule as Grand Marshall. They are still weak, and crippled."

"Right," Riddick said. "And how do you suggest we take them out, with just the two of us, huh? 'Cause I'm good, but I ain't _that_ good."

"We won't be doing it alone," Aereon replied. "There are people all over the galaxies, just waiting for the chance to strike a blow against the Necromongers."

"...You wanna raise an army?" Riddick asked, arching a brow.

"Exactly," Aereon said. "Like I said, our next stop is Coromander Five. That's where we start, with a man by the name of Dwayne Johnson."

Riddick's brows shot up, and he stared at her for nearly a solid minute, as if waiting to see if she would suddenly smile at him and shout, "Fooled you!" Aereon, of course, did no such thing.

"…You mean the Rock," he said finally.

"So, you've heard of him."

"Kind of hard not to, seein' as he's one of the most skilled bounty hunters in the entire system," Riddick replied. "Even threw _me_ in the slammer…_several_ times."

"Yes, I'm aware," Aereon said casually.

"He's a Merc," Riddick said, slowly, as if Aereon were deaf. Maybe she was. She was certainly insane. "I'm the most wanted man in the galaxy."

"Yes," Aereon agreed, and glanced up at him, her eyes dancing. "Your point?"

Riddick was not amused. He tilted his head, and gave Aeeon the hardest glare he was capable of—for all the good that did. She merely put her chin in her hand and smiled.

"It won't work."

"We'll see," Aereon said in a sing-song kind of way, and he hated that knowing, purposefully enigmatic glint in her eye. He got the sinking feeling that, despite the bat-shit craziness of her choice in comrades, things were going to turn out exactly as she wanted them.

A Seer that could calculate the future was one thing.

A Seer that could _manipulate_ the future was an entirely different ballpark.

As if she'd read his mind, Aereon's mouth pulled into a slow, sharp-edged grin, and a chill crawled across Riddick's skin. He'd sensed she was dangerous from the first moment he'd met her. But until now, he hadn't realized just how much. She'd been puppet-mastering his life from the beginning. She was still yanking his strings, and if he let her pull him along, she would drag him right to the edge of the Universe. Only question was: would she push him off? Or would he jump?

Typically, he'd have killed what was so very clearly a threat.

But then the image of that assassin's sword buried in her chest flashed across his mind's eye, and he clenched his teeth. The thought of doing the same to her (over and over and over until all her lives ran out) twisted hard in his gut, and he _knew_ she'd known it would. She'd probably _planned_ it that way, and no matter how much he wanted to throttle her for it, he found he couldn't.

He'd killed a woman only once before, and that was because she'd literally stabbed him in the back. Even then, he could almost convince himself it didn't count. She'd been a Necromonger…she might as well have been dead already. But her soft, agonized gasp would still haunt him for the rest of his life.

Aereon had done a lot more than just stick a knife in him—and yet, he didn't get the feeling she'd ever meant him harm. Despite everything, somehow it felt as if she was on his side. He could count on one hand the number of people crazy (or stupid) enough to do that.

All of them had ended up dead.

He got the feeling, that if he stuck around long enough, he'd be the one who died...and the only thing that knowledge did was make him want her even more.

He was insane.

He ought to tell her to go to Hell.

He opened his mouth to do just that when—

"5124592222-78757," Aereon said.

It felt like she'd just punched him in the stomach. Well...no. Not _her_. It felt like a five-hundred pound _gorilla_ had just punched him in the stomach.

"...what?" he said.

"Those are Furya's current coordinates," Aereon replied, as if she hadn't just handed him the one thing he'd desperately wanted for the majority of his adult life. "Incidentally, it's also the phone number and zip code for Mr. Gatti's Pizza Delivery. Small universe, isn't it?"

"Mr..._what_?"

"Honestly, I have no idea," Aereon shook her head. "Sometimes my calculations can make absolutely no sense, even to me."

Riddick stared at the girl for a long time, wondering if her regeneration had knocked her clean off her rocker. He shook his head, slowly. He couldn't remember the last time someone had jerked him around this much.

It was kind of...refreshing.

Or infuriating.

He hadn't settled on which.

"So," Aereon continued, her eyes taking on a more serious light. "I suppose you have two choices here. You can drop me off on Delta Minor, and go on your way, no questions asked. In six months' time you'll find an empty, blasted rock orbiting a cold star. I'm guessing you'll sit there for a few days, perhaps a week, taking in the sights. Then you'll turn right around and come straight back to find me, after which we will set off for Coromander Five. Or—and here's a crazy thought—we could skip all that, and just go straight to Coromander. By then, however, you will have wasted a lot of precious time, and our window of opportunity will have long since closed so you might as well not even bother. But that's really up to you. Your choice."

Riddick drew in a deep breath through his nose, and actually had to resist the urge to scrub his hands down his face. He crossed his arms instead, and gave her one of those long silent stares that never failed to get under the skin of every bounty hunter he'd ever met.

Unsurprisingly, it wasn't very effective here. Aereon simply stared back, completely unruffled, with the air and patience of a large predatory cat hunting a mouse.

"...think you're clever, do you?" Riddick asked, his voice going quietly dangerous. "Think I'm just gonna fold and do whatever you want? Maybe I _will_ drop your skinny ass. Maybe I don't _care_ Furya's a lifeless rock. Maybe I _like_ solitude."

"No, you don't," Aereon replied airily, huffing a laugh as if that was the most ridiculous thing she'd ever heard. "Because you haven't been looking for _Furya _all this time, you silly goose. You've been looking for your _people_. And if you want to _find_ any of them, I'm your best chance."

His..._people? _

The hand-print upon his chest, right over his heart, began to _burn._

"...I thought I was the only one left."

Something in Aereon's gaze softened, turned so gentle, and he had to look away.

"Some of them were off-world when the Necromongers attacked," Aereon explained quietly. "Now they're scattered across the stars, living in the colonies, mostly. If everything goes according to plan, we can unite them once more, and restore your planet to its full potential. But only if you help me, Riddick."

He was silent for a very long time, his head cocked to the side, searching her eyes for even a hint of deception or lies. He found none. But that didn't mean they weren't there. Aereon was completely inscrutable, even if when she looked sincere.

Still...

"...Coromander's three weeks away," Riddick grunted at length, his head bowing a fraction of an inch. The only indication of defeat he would ever afford her. "And this ship isn't outfitted with cryo-chambers. You said we wouldn't need them."

"We won't," Aereon replied. "Too many things can go wrong in cryo-sleep—or didn't you learn that on the Hunter-Gratzner?"

"So, what do you suggest we do?" Riddick asked, leaning forward and giving Aereon his most charming smile. Aereon looked up, her calculations dissipating into the air, and smiled sweetly back at him.

"I suggest you find a good book to read," she told him, rising from her seat and gliding out of the room.

"You're serious?" Riddick asked, disbelief coloring his tone.

"As the plague," Aereon shot back over her shoulder. Riddick watched her go, hips swaying temptingly, and leaned back in his chair with a sigh.

It was going to be a very long trip.

.oOo.

Aereon let out a deep, steadying breath, leaning up against her door and trying to calm her nerves. Damn hormones. She hadn't had to deal with them since she'd hit menopause. But apparently they were back with a vengeance in this new, younger body. And Riddick stirred them up into a frenzy like no one else could, damn him.

She pulled her braids out and ran a hand through her hair, shaking out the curls, before dropping onto her bed. There were only two rooms on this ship—hers, and Riddick's. His was right across the hall. And her door didn't have a lock. That was worrisome, but she knew Riddick wasn't the type to force anything, no matter how frustrated he got. He _would_, however, do his level best to make her go to him, and she absolutely refused to sink to that level. A whole world of trouble was waiting for her, the second she started down that road, and she was determined to avoid it at all cost.

It was going to be a very long trip.

Aereon sighed, and pushed herself up. There was a full-length mirror standing in the corner, and she padded towards it, curious to see the changes her regeneration had wrought. The face staring back at her was her own—just a version of it that she hadn't seen for a long time. The Time Lords changed their entire bodies, their entire _personalities_ sometimes, and she was glad everything had remained constant and familiar.

She returned to the bed, and remembered belatedly she had left her Arithmancy book back in the galley. At least, that's what she called it in her head. Calculating the future in graphs and charts and numbers wasn't a new idea, by any means. People had been doing it for centuries, or at least had understood the concept. But she'd found the closest approximation of it in a children's book, of all places, written hundreds of years ago when the human race still lived on Earth. Some woman by the name of Rowling…

Aereon muttered to herself irritably. She glanced at the book shelf next to her bed in disinterest, but the sparse collection of maps and dirty magazines haphazardly piled up on top of one another did not appeal. She'd come in here to get away from Riddick and his infuriating barbs and the infuriating way he'd looked at her and the infuriating way her body kept reacting to him. She hadn't dealt with this particular kind of attention in _years_, not since…

She shook her head. Some things were better left alone—and Riddick was definitely one of them.

She blew out a frustrated breath and buried her face in her pillow. If there was anything worse than the dangerously unwanted attentions of a man that looked like Trouble Incarnate, it was boredom. Ten minutes of restless pacing later, ruthlessly ignoring the way her stupid new body..._itched..._she was ready to rip her hair out.

And it was right about then that there was a knock at the door.

As if Riddick had planned it that way.

Aereon suppressed a groan, then snatched a random book off her shelf and threw herself down on the bed.

"It's open," she said. Riddick pushed open the door, and stood leaning against the frame for a moment.

Then he tilted his head, pure amusement in his voice as he said, "You know your book is upside down."

"Yes, I was aware, thank you," Aereon replied coolly, without missing a beat. She hadn't, of course, but she wasn't about to admit that to _him_. "I'm practicing. Reading upside down is actually a very handy skill to have."

"That's a book on star charts. Didn't know it was possible to read a star chart upside do—"

"Did you want something, Riddick?" Aereon asked airily, turning a page.

"Made omelets," Riddick grinned. "Came to see if you wanted one."

"_You_ made omelets?" Aereon asked, looking up in surprise. "You did not make omelets."

"What? Didn't know I could cook?" Riddick asked, crossing his arms and canting a hip. "And here I thought you knew everything."

"Just everything important," Aereon replied impishly.

"Are you hungry or not?"

Aereon considered the man for a moment, weighing her options. She could either continue to sit in her room and be bored, or she could continue to exchange snarky comebacks with a man who frequently swung back at forth from wanting to strangle her, to wanting to eat her with chocolate syrup.

"You can't avoid me forever, you know," Riddick pointed out, as if he'd been reading her thoughts, still smirking down at her like a lion watching a gazelle. "It's a pretty small ship. You're gonna have to come out of here sometime. Or maybe you want me to join _you_, instead…"

Aereon hopped up as if her bed had suddenly turned into a pit of lava. "After you," she said cheerfully.

Riddick's grin widened, but he didn't move from the doorway. Apparently he was going to try and force her to squeeze by him. Aereon gave him a condescending, supremely unimpressed look, before disappearing one moment and reappearing out in the hallway the next. He chuckled, voice low and graveled, and followed at her heels.

"I know what you're doing, by the way," Aereon said as she made her way back to the galley.

"Yeah? What's that?" Riddick asked.

"You're trying to butter me up so you can…what's the phrase? Get in my pants."

"Is that what I'm doing?" Riddick said. "And here I thought I was just bein' friendly."

"Which you only seemed to have started after I regenerated," Aereon observed dryly, seating herself at the galley table. "After you got over the shock, of course. Funny how that worked out. And now that you want me, you're all smiles and omelets. I've got your number."

Instead of trying to pass it off, Riddick instead shot her a shit-eating grin and plunked a steaming plate in front of her.

"_You_ came to _me_, remember?" he asked, retrieving his own plate and sitting across from her.

"To offer my services as a Seer, only," Aereon retorted sharply. "Anything else was clearly off the table."

"That was before you turned into a fine piece of ass."

"You're just full of charm today, aren't you?" Aereon replied dryly, slowly lifted up one edge of the pseudo-egg to examine what was inside.

"Will you just eat it?" Riddick snorted after she'd thoroughly dissected his peace offering. "That's rude, you know."

"Oh, that's rich," Aereon laughed, though good-naturedly. "Richard B. Riddick, hardened criminal and wanted felon, lecturing me on proper table manners."

"Just 'cause I'm a con, doesn't mean I can't have manners," Riddick retorted, enjoying the banter despite himself. He couldn't remember a time when someone had actually just sat around and talked to him like this—like he was a normal fucking person.

Meanwhile, Aereon was cautiously taking a bite, as if she half-expected her breakfast to explode. or poison her. Or both.

"Well. I'm duly impressed," she admitted. "This is…actually rather good. Where did you learn to cook like this?"

"Would you believe Tangiers Penal Colony?"

"No way."

"They don't feed their prisoners. You're expected to find and cook your own food," Riddick explained, digging into his own meal, though he continued to watch her. Where he was wolfing his down, she took dainty bites like a proper little lady. He was almost tempted to chew with his mouth open, just to see her reaction. She looked mildly disapproving of his eating habits already, and carefully avoided watching him after the first couple of bites.

"So what's it gonna take to get you in bed with me?" he asked once he'd cleaned his plate. Aereon _almost_ choked on her food, and just managed to swallow it down before shooting him a truly withering glare.

"Riddick, let me make this perfectly clear to you," she said, folding her hands on the table. "I am _never_ going to sleep with you. Period."

"Don't fuck guys, huh?" Riddick asked, folding his arms behind his head. "Met a girl who said the same thing once. Asked me, real sweet-like, to go balls deep in her the same day. Still keeps a room open for me."

"Then go hop in bed with Dahl, and when you're ready to talk business, come see me," Aereon replied.

Riddick blinked, though he wasn't surprised.

"You know about all that, huh?"

"I've been keeping an eye on you for a very long time now," Aereon told him. "Ever since I found you in a trash can, actually."

Riddick felt his stomach clench, and he went very still.

"…_You_ found me?"

"Who else did you think it was?" Aereon asked, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "After the Necromongers were finished, I slipped my chains and went to find you. You'd have died if I hadn't."

Riddick shifted, his skin feeling hot and heavy.

"So what, you want a thank you?" he asked roughly. "Right after that, you dumped me in one of the worst orphanages in the system. Practically grew up in the penal system. Takes a pretty cold bitch to do that. And people call _me_ a monster."

"You needed the education," Aereon replied, her expression unreadable.

"I grew up thinking my own mother strangled me at birth," Riddick snapped. "The least you could have done was explain. Write a fucking letter."

"Riddick I _couldn't_," Aereon told him patiently. "The Necromongers were scouring the Universe for any survivors. If they'd gotten wind of you, if they'd known at all that you were alive, they'd have killed you before you were capable of fighting back. No one could know who you really were. Not even you."

It made perfect sense, and he knew it…but that didn't make it easier. Not when all he could remember were lonely nights, an empty belly, and the constant ache for someone to look at him without fear or hatred or indifference.

"Forgotten all about bedding me, then, have you?" Aereon asked curtly, and Riddick shot her a sharp look of complete disbelief. "Oh, the fickleness of men."

_Oh, that manipulative little…_

"I haven't forgotten _anything_."

"Oh, I think you did for a second there," Aereon replied sharply. "Don't let the pretty face fool you. I am still the woman that sacrificed you and your people, and I won't hesitate to do it again."

"Never doubted that for a second," Riddick retorted.

"Good," Aereon said firmly. "So can we just focus on taking out the Necromongers now, and forget about everything else?"

"Hell no."

"Oh, for _pity's sake_, for the last time I do _not_ want—"

"Two reasons," Riddick growled, cutting her off. "First, you _do_ want me. I can smell the pheromones from here."

"My _body_ wants you, there is a difference," Aereon snapped, her cheeks flushing prettily. "I've just regenerated, and I haven't had to deal with all these damned hormones in years. It'll settle down in a few days. Believe me, I do _not_ want you. I've seen firsthand what you do with women, and I am _not_ a 'hit it and quit it' kind of girl. So _back off_."

"Secondly, you need it," Riddick continued, his mouth quirking into a smirk.

"Here we go," Aereon cried, throwing her hands in the air. "You men are all alike! You think a woman simply _can't_ exist without you!"

"Lady, you're wound tighter than anyone I've ever seen," Riddick snorted. "When was the last time you had a good, long—"

"Do not even think about finishing that sentence," Aereon warned. "You do realize I am thirty-six years older than you?"

"On this side of the galaxy, Furya was destroyed nearly two hundred years ago," Riddick replied dismissively. "I've been on planets where one year equals a decade. And I've been in Cryo for at least twice that long. Time is relative."

"I will never have sex with you, Riddick," Aereon said, clearly and slowly, as if she were talking to someone mentally challenged. "So stop asking me."

"Not a chance."

"Look, if you just want sex, there are plenty of brothels we can stop at," Aereon pointed out irritably. "Sleep with as many hookers as your heart desires, and come back when you've got whatever this is out of your system."

"I don't want _sex_," Riddick replied evenly. "I want _you_."

Aereon blinked, staring at him for a moment in open-mouthed disbelief.

"And I usually get what I want," he finished. Aereon shut her jaw with a snap.

"I'm afraid you'll be sadly disappointed then," she said crisply, and was gone.

**To be continued...**

* * *

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pitch Black/Riddick, Doctor Who or Harry Potter. All characters and ideas belong to their respective owners. I'm just borrowing them.**


	3. Chapter 3

**LOADING...RETURN TO FURYA**

**DATA ENTRY: THE VOYAGE**

**LOG 003-12/03/2514**

* * *

Three weeks.

Aereon had endured _three __whole weeks_ of Richard B. Riddick.

Honestly, she was rather surprised she had survived so long. Despite her ability to phase-shift, she was fairly certain Riddick would have found a way to kill her if she'd tried to murder him in his sleep. Not that she wasn't _sorely_ tempted over the last few grueling days. For goodness sake, how aggravating could one person possibly get? Someone ought to give her a medal, or something, for showing such restraint.

That first night they'd spent on their stolen ship—which quickly proved itself to be such an ornery little craft she'd internally titled it _The Piece of Shit—_she'd tossed restlessly in her bunk, resolutely ignoring the _itch_ between her legs and the ever-present ache in her chest...and awoke the next cycle to find Riddick sitting not two feet from her bed like a total creeper.

"You snore," he informed her, as if watching her sleep was a perfectly normal thing to do.

"I do not," Aereon retorted crisply, very careful not to act in the slightest bit perturbed (it would only amuse him, and possibly encourage him to keep doing this), and haughtily swept out of the room in search of the latrine. She was suddenly very glad she always wore a camisole and boxers to bed—but then she'd half-expected him to try something like that, hadn't she? Just to prove that he could. As if she didn't already know there wasn't a lock on the door. How utterly puerile.

She was deeply grateful for the lock on the bathroom door. Even if it was a flimsy thing, and wouldn't do a thing to keep Riddick out if he really wanted to get in there. But she'd been watching him long enough to know he probably wouldn't try something like that. Maybe. Hopefully.

She was halfway through her shower when he knocked on the door.

"I gotta piss."

"You can wait five minutes, can't you?" Aereon asked, a note of plaintive exasperation in her voice and her hair full of suds. Damn him, he was doing this on purpose. He probably didn't even need to go.

There was a beat of silence. Then a quiet scuffling on the other side of the door, followed by the ominous _click_ of the lock.

"...Did you seriously just pick the lock of a _bathroom door_?"

"I told you, I gotta—"

"No, you don't, you just came in here to harass me," Aereon snapped. It was too _early_ for this, dammit.

"Well, well," Riddick drawled. "_Someone_ sure thinks highly of themselves."

Aereon was acutely aware that she was naked, and that there was nothing between them now but a thin plastic curtain. Her heart started thumping against her rib-cage, and she firmly told it to shut up. It didn't listen. Then, over the rush of water pounding down on her back, she heard the quiet _snick_ of a zipper. Her heart started thumping harder. She ignored it, and scrubbed savagely at her hair, keeping a sharp eye on the curtain and an even sharper hold on her magic. If there was even the slightest hint of movement, she was out of there.

The tell-tale sound of someone peeing broke through the fog in her head, and she felt her face go up in flames. She wanted to sink right through the floor. She wanted to throw the curtain open and throttle that son of a bitch. She wanted _him_ to throw the curtain open and—

She very brutally stomped on that train of thought, and resolved not to think about _anything at all_ until that Furyan bastard was gone, gone, _gone._

Speaking of which...he was still peeing.

Her forehead thumped lightly against the wall, and she bit down a frustrated groan. _Why _had she thought this was a good idea? Well. Because, on paper, it looked good. When she'd run the numbers, it was the best possible solution. But numbers were cold. They didn't account for things like _emotions_ or _hormones. _

She hadn't _felt_ things for such a long time.

And she had almost convinced herself that she couldn't feel anything at all, anymore.

God, she was so, so wrong.

_...was this a mistake...?_

"Hey, you need any help in there?" Riddick asked casually, zipping up his fly.

"Oh, no thank you, I'm fine," Aereon replied through clenched teeth. "I think I can handle washing my hair on my own. Been doing it all my life, you know."

"I didn't mean that," he replied, and she could practically _hear_ the smirk. Suddenly, she could feel him right on the other side of the curtain. The deep growl in his voice went straight to her core. "I meant the _problem_ you've been ignoring. The one right between your legs? I can smell how wet you are from across the ship."

"I told you," Aereon gritted out. "It'll _go away_ on it's own. Like _you _should."

"I could have you up against the wall in two seconds."

Aereon closed her eyes, fighting off a hard shudder. She knew for a fact he was messing with her. He wouldn't try anything like that if she wasn't willing. He abhorred rapists. He'd killed quite a few of them, actually. So, she wasn't afraid he'd try anything.

She was afraid she'd give in.

And she _couldn't_ let that happen.

"Go. Away."

"Your loss," Riddick shrugged. She could see his outline through the curtain, saw the rise and fall of his massive shoulders, and wondered what it would be like to—NO. STOP IT. She heard his footsteps retreat, and breathed out a sigh of relief. Shutting off the water, she reached for the towel on the rack...and found that it had suddenly and mysteriously vanished.

Oh. Joy.

Aereon poked her head out. Riddick stood in the doorway, the towel in his hand, teeth bared in a crooked, razor-edged grin. So, he was playing _that_ game. Well, then.

"Would you be a dear and hand me my towel, please?" she asked, all honey and tar. Riddick almost choked, he snorted so hard.

"Well, since you asked so nicely," he began, and oh dear Lord, he was practically _purring_, "...No."

Aereon huffed out an irritated sigh—the only sign that she was _royally pissed off—_and vanished. She neatly plucked the towel out of Riddick's hands as she passed, wrapped it firmly around herself, and was halfway down the corridor before she reappeared.

"I don't know about you," she said flippantly, not even bothering to look back. "But I find all this sexual tension _unspeakably_ tedious. So, when you've decided to stop acting like a randy dog in heat, come find me. I'll be making breakfast in the galley, should you choose to start behaving like a civilized human being."

"I'm not a human being."

"Well, technically neither am I, but that's beside the point."

Abruptly, an arm wrapped around her middle, and pulled her up against a warm, rock-solid chest. The breath left her lungs. When had he—she hadn't even _heard _him—

"I'm not civilized, either," murmured a low voice in her ear.

"Riddick, you are perfectly capable of _acting_ like it, aren't you?" Aereon retorted, ghosting away from him and planting her hands on her hips. "Which you _will_, in my presence, if you don't wish to spend the remainder of the voyage talking to _thin air_."

With that, she turned on her heel and marched away.

She did not think about the way her spine tingled. She did not think about the giddy butterflies in her stomach. And she most certainly did not think about the low, quiet chuckles that followed her all the way through the ship, despite the fact that their owner had long stopped laughing at her.

She didn't shower again for at least two days after that. But eventually the oil in her hair and the grime under her clothes got to be too much and she finally, cautiously, caved. Still, she waited until they'd both turned in for the night, and then ghosted down the hall as quietly as possible.

The water felt heavenly, even if it was only lukewarm, and she had just managed to relax into it when the shower curtain was tugged sharply to the side.

Aereon did _not_ jump. She didn't scream, or throw things, or do anything someone might normally have done upon being walked in on in the shower. Instead, she just sighed with a carefully crafted air of mild annoyance, canted a hip, crossed her arms, and waited.

Riddick's silver-eyed gaze made a point of looking her up and down, painfully slow. Tracking over every curve, drinking in every dip, as if he was trying to memorize her. Then those eyes zeroed in on her own, and she felt the world tip beneath her feet in a way it hadn't done in such a long, long time_. _The sheer amount raw _wanting_ in his gaze was so powerful it actually made her heart _skip a beat_, the traitorous little—

"Happy, now?" she asked, feigning a look of _supreme_ disdain, followed closely by boredom. Riddick merely cocked his head at her. Just to be impudent, she cocked her head back. She refused to acknowledge the fact that she was standing there absolutely and completely naked.

Or that he wasn't wearing a shirt. Or trousers, for that matter. Or anything at all.

Of _course_ he slept in the nude.

(Or maybe he didn't, and he'd just started that habit with the sole purpose of catching her like this.)

She did not look down.

She _did not_ look down.

_She did not look down._

After about a minute into their staring contest, through which Aereon kept her expression ruthlessly inscrutable, Riddick afforded her the barest of smirks, twitched the curtain closed, and walked away. She didn't know how long she stood there. Long enough for the water to run cold. It didn't help much.

She still felt like a boiled lobster.

Over the next few days, Riddick did very little but follow her around and constantly pester her. He didn't walk in on her when she was in the bathroom anymore, thank goodness, but he came up with a myriad of other ways to get a rise out of her. Granted, it was the only form of entertainment he could get, so she could at least partially understand why he was so determined to be an absolute _pain in the ass._

Unfortunately, that knowledge didn't make her any less frustrated with him.

Still. She could be patient. It was worth it in the end. She just had to get through the next few weeks, and then it wouldn't be just the two of them. They'd find _other _people he could annoy into an early grave. Well...if he didn't kill them first, and put them there even sooner. That _was_ a possibility.

"What're you doing?"

Aereon sighed, as an hour's worth of calculations dissolved into a convoluted mess. She waved the smoke away, and reached for her glass of tea. It was cold. Wonderful.

"No, please, _do_ keep asking me questions about things you couldn't possibly understand," she said, tartly. "It's not like I was concentrating, or anything."

Riddick didn't apologize—not that she ever expected his vocabulary to include the word _sorry—_and just shot her another one of his amused smile-smirks before dropping into the chair across from her. The galley table was quickly becoming their favorite hang-out spot. Not that they had any other options. Riddick made it very clear he wouldn't let her stay alone in her room for the entire trip, and she refused to be anywhere near him when there was a bed so close by.

The temptation was...too much.

So, they'd fallen into a routine of sorts. She would work on her calculations at the table, and he would ask her inane questions, pretty much doing everything he could to be as distracting as possible. Or maybe he was just naturally distracting.

A slight frown was pulling at his features, and she cocked a brow at him.

"I'm not stupid, you know."

Oh, that was...adorable. He almost sounded _petulant_.

"That's not what I meant," Aereon huffed, half-annoyed the thought had even occurred to him. "I mean, would I _really_ put the fate of the _entire galaxy_ on your shoulders if you were? _Honestly_. Use your brain for once, Riddick."

That last was said with a fair amount of cheeky teasing, and Riddick snorted, shaking his head at the sheer audacity.

"Seriously, though, explaining Arithmancy is like explaining quantum physics to a four year old," Aereon went on, removing her half-moon spectacles and carefully cleaning them on the edge of her shirt.

"...Arithmancy?"

Aereon paused, then blew out a sigh, waving her hand as if to bat away a particularly stubborn fly.

"Well, that's just what I call it. The proper term is—"

"Isn't that from Harry Potter?"

Aereon blinked.

_Shit._

_She had forgotten..._

Studiously, she did not react, beyond lifting her eyes to meet his, and asking with a faint whiff of surprised incredulity, "_You've_ read Harry Potter?"

Riddick shrugged, but there was a sudden sharpness in his gaze.

_Double shit._

"It was one of the only books we had at the orphanage," he replied, his gaze unwavering. "We only had Prisoner of Azkaban. It was pretty torn up, too. Half the pages were missing. I went looking for the rest, but nobody had even _heard_ of it."

"Well, it _was_ written several thousand years ago," Aereon conceded, carefully.

"You're the first person I've met who has," Riddick continued, slowly leaning forward in his chair and folding his hands across the table.

"What can I say?" she said, smiling as harmlessly as possible. "I enjoy the classics."

"Uh-huh," Riddick said, his voice gone flat. "You know, a few weeks after I read the third one, somebody donated the entire series to our orphanage. All brand new. Always wondered who it was, actually."

"Clearly someone who liked books," Aereon replied, returning smoothly to her calculations.

"You like books?" Riddick asked pointedly.

"Never touch the things," Aereon dismissed easily, meticulously avoiding his eyes, and busied herself with writing notes. She ended up making random doodles across the page instead. She couldn't have concentrated if she wanted to, with him staring at her like that. He was quiet for a while, and just watched her write gibberish equations in intelligible chicken-scratch.

"You know," he said, when it was clear she wasn't going to break. "...I used to dream about getting a letter from Hogwarts."

"You did no such thing," Aereon scoffed, nearly choking on her own laughter. It was sometimes difficult to tell when he was lying, but she knew bullshit when she heard it.

"Sure I did," Riddick replied, with a slow wolfish smile. "Back when I was still young and stupid. Anything to get me out of that hellhole you put me in. Course...it never came. No matter how much I wanted it."

Aereon's hand almost stuttered, her heart constricting, and she cursed the stupid thing seven ways from Sunday. She wouldn't be surprised if the manipulative bastard was making it all up, but it still managed to sting, anyway. She put her pencil down, and took a steadying breath, refusing to meet his eyes. She stared down at a stain on the table, instead. Easier that way.

"If you recall," she said quietly. "Dumbledore put Harry with the Dursley's to protect him from Voldemort. So...maybe...the person who gave you those books was trying to tell you something. That...even if you're in a shitty situation..."

She looked up at him, her eyes locking into his over the rim of her half-moon specs.

"...it can always be much, much worse."

"I think you need to work on your inspirational speeches," Riddick told her after a long pause. "Cause that...wasn't very inspiring."

Aereon shrugged.

"Sorry, that's the best I got for ya," she said, with a lop-sided sort of smile, before she slowly cocked her head. A bad habit she was picking up from him, apparently. "...did you really dream about getting a letter?"

Riddick gave her a level stare, and raised the most sardonic brow there ever was.

"No," he snorted flatly.

Aereon chuckled, and shook her head. His gaze dropped to her mouth for a moment, his expression unreadable, but she could guess what he was thinking.

"You don't look like much of a Dumbledore, to me," he said.

Or...maybe not.

This was such a surreal conversation.

"Oh, I dunno," Aereon replied, a hint of playful mischief twinkling in her eyes. "I think I'd look pretty good with a beard."

She pulled a lock of her snowy hair forward, and held it under her nose, posing regally.

"What do you think?"

Riddick started laughing.

* * *

****My muse is a fickle bitch. It can't stay focused on one story for more than a few chapters, it seems. Ah, well. Anyway, I'm back on this one—for however long that is. Sorry, folks. I know how frustrating ******_**that**_****** can be. Also, I went back and added some things to chapter two, so reread that if you haven't already, for those of you who actually remember this story. ****

****Moving right along, some people had commented on how chatty Riddick was being, and I have a defense for that. See, in the first movie he's either on his own, or surrounded by people who think he's the scum of the earth. Not much room for idle chitchat there. In the second movie, he's either on his own or surrounded by people who want to kill him. ****

****Yeah, there's Imam, but that dude totally betrayed him. Like, not cool, bro. And sure, there's also Kyra, but she's a prickly little bitch for most of Chronicles. Also, she's a bit mad at big brother Riddick for ditching her. Now in the third movie, Riddick is either on his own, or surrounded by people who ******_**really**_****** want to kill him. Plus, they totally killed his dog, and that was pretty much the only healthy relationship I've ever seen him in. All poisonings aside. ****

****Now, here he is with a cute, intelligent little girl who isn't afraid of him, doesn't hate him, doesn't want to kill him, and is actually willing to sit down and have a decent conversation. Or at the very least exchange witty remarks. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for Riddick to release his inner snark. He ******_**does**_****** have a pretty funny sense of humor, but he's usually too busy beating the hell out of everything to get a chance to use it.****

****So, that is my justification for all the bantering. ****

****I REGRET NOTHING!****


End file.
